Getting Ready!

I am getting ready for Saturday! The Autumn Street Fair is one of my favorite days of the whole year. Not only do I get to spend the day outdoors talking art, I get to see so many people. There are always lots of new faces, which I enjoy, but it is those old friends and customers that make my day. I live in the same small town as many of you, but rarely get to actually see you.

I also think it is funny that I don't know what some of best customers even look like! So many of us communicate with email and I mail you finished orders or do a drop-off delivery and we never actually meet. If that's the case, please come and introduce yourself!

Hillari Hale ordered the witch legs completely customized to fit her family. She wanted "Mommy" legs, daughter "Claire" legs, and "Gracee" the black cat. This turned out so cute and is just a reminder to take the designs I offer and make them your own. I am more than happy to work with you to make your canvas personal.

Believe

I love this one for the holidays. At my house, we believe!

Tiny Treats

These itty-bitty 5x5 canvases with Halloween themed glass bead handles are the perfect treat. Keep teachers, secret sisters, special friends, and yourself (!) in mind.

$15.00 each

Scarecrow

This 12x24 scarecrow is for LeAnn Nokes. I hate that "the Nokes" part, which is in black, didn't show up in the photograph on the denim blue. There are lots of little details on the overalls that didn't show! The burgundy background, forest green shirt, and dark denim blue all work so well with the golds in the hat and face. That sweet face is my favorite part.
Perfect for all of fall!

Show Us Your Life - Desserts

This is a repost from May...I couldn't help it! It really is my favorite dessert recipe!

Lauren asked that question about the pie I made to take to Steve and Carolyn's for dinner. "It's the good kind, baby," I replied. After she chewed a minute, she said, "Mmmmm, you got that right"!
The "good kind" of pie is actually Buttermilk Pie. It is so easy and soooooo yummy!

3/4 stick of margarine melted
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
4 eggs
Mix all of the ingredients together well and pour into a pie crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Rubber Duckie

Rubber duckie, you're the one. You make bath time so much fun. Rubber duckie, I'm awfully fond of you!

These adorable duck canvases are headed to Rachel Harvey in Georgia to decorate the bathroom. I love the way they coordinate. They will be so cute hanging together in any arrangement.
I love Sesame Street and Ernie...but I have always been a Bert kind of girl.

Ho Ho Ho!

I am so loving this one right now! I was so happy with the "Boo" on the three separate canvases that I decided to try something similar for Christmas. I like the traditional red and green combined with the pink and lime.
It feels kind of strange painting stuff for Christmas and winter, but I am wanting to be prepared for the Autumn Street Fair. Maybe I'll have one left for my front door!

Scary Words

I heard some scary words with this order and it had nothing to do with Halloween. Marcy Bouldin ordered a birthday gift for her daughter to give to her boyfriend. She said, and I quote, "Just do something a seventeen-year-old boy would like". Yikes! That rules out polka dots, paisleys, and pretty much everything else I tend to do.
I decided to keep it simple. Tyler plays two sports and she wanted both of them represented on one large 16x20 canvas. My first idea was two jerseys, but I just couldn't make it work. I like how it turned out. It was something different for me and I had fun with it. Thank you so much, Marcy and Torrye, for the opportunity.

In other sporting news, my son has started a display in my kitchen window. He has decided to feature a "helmet of the day" from baseball, pro football, and college football. He has made himself available to answer any questions about the featured teams.

Fall Leaves

A special 8x10 canvas designed to be left up for all of fall. Leaf patterns, gorgeous colors, and a little touch of brown velvet...perfect!

Boo!

I did this boo canvas for my friend, Tabetha Sullens. When I delivered it to her mom's house, her mom decided to keep it! That's okay. I've made lots more! This is a new design this year and I just love it. I hope it is a big hit at the street fair.

I am planning to get in the attic this afternoon and pull out all of my Halloween and fall stuff. I am kind of in the mood to decorate. I am really in the mood to get rid of all of these summer clothes! Bring on the cool weather!

Show Us Your Life - Dinner Recipes

This one is not exactly original. I think it is more of an oldie but a goodie. I got it from Pampered Chef. This cheeseburger ring is really easy and everyone in my family loves it. I serve it with chips. It got gone so quick that I almost missed the photo opportunity!


















Cheeseburger Ring
1/4 c. chopped onion (I leave this out!)
1 lb. ground lean beef
1/4 c. ketchup
3 tbsp. mustard
5 slices American cheese
1 package cresent rolls
dill pickle slices
lettuce and tomato

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In large skillet, brown hamburger meat and onion and drain. Add ketchup, mustard, and cheese slices. Stir until cheese is melted. Remove pan from heat. Unroll cresent roll dough and arrange in a ring on backing stone or sheet. It looks like a star! Put as much meat mixture as you like on each one, place a pickle slice on top, and fold the dough over. Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown. I serve it with shredded lettuce and diced tomatoes in the center. Yum!

Lauren ate all of hers so she could get to that candied apple. Yes, she wears jewelry. With her gown. At lunchtime.

The Jones Family

What a sweet little snowman family created especially for Jason, Tanya, and Olivia Jones. I hope they enjoy this for many winters to come.

Orange County Choppers

I admit that Dream Custom Artwork is not the place where you would normally go to see Orange County Chopper items. This is a first! Angela Sweeton wanted an 11x14 canvas for her son's room and this is his theme.
Instead of doing a motorcycle and getting is terribly wrong, I decided to focus on the logo and his name in their signature font. I like the clean black and white. There is actually gray shading that gives it some dimension. I also left off all borders and ribbon to keep it masculine.

For Emily

Okay, sis, here it is! Emily has been wanting something "fallish" for her front door. She has small wreath and wanted a long, skinny canvas to hang under it. This one is a deep olive green with olive and lime hand stamped detailing in the background. The lettering is in cream with copper detailing.
I added a layer of chocolate antiquing glaze. On top of that, there are iridescent copper touches to bring out the background texture and to add a little more color. I then sanded the edges to achieve a weathered look. I am really getting into this antiquing...I just with it photographed better!

Teacher Gifts

Mrs. Angela Trapp here at Bobby Ray ordered herself a teacher canvas for her door. She liked the one I did in aqua a while back for Ms. Spivey, but wanted it in her favorite shades of purple. Christy Partin ordered a gift for her son's teacher. I did my best to make it look more masculine!

Keep the teachers in your life in mind for Christmas. A personalized canvas makes the perfect gift really any time of the year. I can do them in any size, font, and color scheme to make them truly personal.

All of the school canvases I've been doing lately have got me to thinking about my favorite teachers. Who were your favorite teachers? I bet those of us here in Warren County have many of the same.

I loved my first grade teacher, Betty Boyd. She always spoke so sweetly to all of us. I also remember her making silhouettes of each one of us. I had Miss Donna Haston (Womack) for her first year of teaching in the second grade. I thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world because she hot rolled her hair everyday.

In third grade, Mrs. Betty Clendenon let us push all of the desks back and sit in the floor to read the newspaper together. Later on, Dr. Haskell Greer made History interesting and funny. Mrs. Linda King worked really hard on a lost cause like me in Algebra! I did have two professors in particular in college that were truly inspirational and helped me make some major life decisions.

Let your past and present favorite teachers know they are special to you. I guarantee that it will make their day!

White Christmas

I've been working on some holiday/winter items for the street fair. I love this black canvas with a metallic snowflake in the background. The lettering is in the cutest font in white, and is a line from my favorite Christmas carol. The whole this has been coated with sparkle...of course! I also added shimmery ribbon for hanging. The 6x9 size is just right for a front door, in a wreath, on a knob, or in that little hard to fit nook.
It's not too early to be making your Christmas list!

Kim Davis

Kim Davis at WCMS ordered herself a teacher canvas. She was very flexible on the design, but wanted browns and aquas. Those colors are so pretty together! I came up with the paisleys and the dotted border. I also chose this funky all lower case font for her name and topped it off with chocolate satin ribbon. It would be so cute just with "welcome" or a family name at the bottom for a front door as well.

I am a little backed up on orders and trying to get plenty of new things ready for the Autumn Street Fair on October 3rd...plus being a busy mom and teacher! I won't be taking any new orders until then. If you've given me a due date for a previous order, I will certainly have it done on time. If not, it will not be ready until after October 3rd. I hate to do that, but it is only a couple of weeks.
I have already contacted some of you about picking your order up at the street fair. I appreciate you letting me use yours as a sample and will see you there!

Vintage

available

I've been experimenting with some glazes and sandpaper to achieve a vintage look. Fortunately, it has been going well and everything has turned out really beautiful. Unfortunately, it doesn't photograph well. These two are so neat to see in person with all of the glaze layers, antique metallic touches, and scuffed up edges. You can kind of see some of the metallic curls in the upper left hand corner on the "Welcome Autumn".

Wesley ordered her big sis, Lindsey, a canvas for her new classroom at Morrison. Lindsey wanted vintage polka dots, so off I went to figure out how to do vintage. I really like how it turned out...wouldn't it be cute with a Christmas quote? I also bought this really pretty shiny sheer champagne ribbon to top it off.

It's Lauren's World...

...and I am just here to fix her hair! I'm just kidding, but she can be a little diva. Here she is on her first day at the Learning House this week. She is beyond excited. I kind of feel sorry for Mrs. Tina! She picked out her outfit. She loves those "dotty pants" and loves it even more that there is a shirt and bow to match. Things must match.

I finally got around to doing something for her "new" room. She has been wanting her name on the wall for a while now. It is not as if her name isn't on everything else already! I really didn't want to do another mural, so this is the comprimise. I did each letter on a 6x9 canvas. She helped choose the fonts, colors, and designs. She really wanted a little bird...it is on the N.

There are "real diamonds" on the R.


I got flowers in on the L, a heart on the A, rainbow swirls on the U, and rainbow polka dots on the E. Whew! This was the most complicated order ever!
I like it beacuse we can easily move it if we rearrange the room or take it with us wherever we end up.

Baby Trey

Lindsey Matheny ordered a baby shower gift for her friend Cheryl in Chattanooga. She sent me this picture of his bedding to match and wanted a clean, simple style. I absolutely love these colors of a dark taupe, red, cream, and slate blue. I would use this anywhere in my house, much less the nursery! I also like the name all in lower case letters.

Thank you, Lindsey, for the order. Now if I can just remember to get it to you, we will be in good shape!

8x24 - $30.00

Elliot Michael Barnes

We are all so excited that baby Elliot has safely made it here. He was born today at about 1:40 and he and mom are both doing great. We went down after school to love on him a little.













I painted my new sweet nephew something for his nursery. Ashley is using earth tones. I kept it modern and simple. Hopefully they can use it for a long time.

Cinderella

This is the cutest quote ever! I, too, am a shoe addict. It doesn't matter...tennis shoes, heels, ballet flats, espadrilles, moccasins, sandals...I wear them all. It is true that the right pair of shoes makes the outfit and you just feel better all day.

I think this is perfect for cool, young, hip, single girl, on her own Krista Payne. I work with Miss Krista and she is such a sweetie! Enjoy!

Go 'Dores!

We went to the Vandy season opener this weekend. Mike and Carter have had season tickets, but this year there was a really good deal to upgrade to a family four pack. Mike surprised us with a hotel room for the night followed by a day of Labor Day sale shopping. Today I am painting, cleaning, and recovering! We really did have a good time!


Here's father and son pregame. Don't they look like big Mike and little Mike? We went to our favorite downtown Nashville place for dinner, San Antonio Taco Company (SatCo). Oh my goodness, it was good! There were a lot of pre-gamers there. Can you tell there was also live music?
















We were early enough to see the band and cheerleader line up for the "star walk". It was very exciting to see all of the players and coached enter the stadium. Everyone was so fired up!






































The kids loved the game and, for the most part, we very well behaved. Vandy won with several touchdowns, which meant several opportunities to do the touchdown dance...